Hemming
“Home sweet home,” I repeat Kae’s words as I put the truck in park. “Let’s see what kind of mess we’re dealing with. You wanna grab the backpack? I’ll grab the suitcase.”
We meet at the front door of what Tucker calls Cottage B, and I unlock it with the keypad system. I trust Tucker’s place is secure and I let Kae step into the house in front of me.
Tucker left the foyer light on. Just beyond the small space is a large living room kitchen combo. It looks like the bedrooms are on either side of the living room, and both Kae and I explore the thousand-square foot space separately.
Boxes line the walls and the furniture that came from my place is still wrapped from the moving company. I walk into the first bedroom and find all of my gym equipment. I wasn’t thinking about the size of my home when I packed everything, but now I’m wondering if I’ll even have space for the set-up I used to have in my spare bedroom. As I walk toward Kae in the other bedroom, I glance at my plastic-wrapped couch.
I don’t need to walk into the next bedroom for the sinking feeling to settle.
This is going to be a one-bed scenario.
The bedroom Kae stands in appears to be the main one. It’s larger and has an attached bathroom.
Just as I assumed, there’s a bed in here.
And not only is the bed put together, but it’s made in what smells like fresh linens.
However, my asshole of a friend put together the full-sized bed.
“I can sleep on the couch,” I offer when she doesn’t turn at my arrival.
It’s a comfortable couch. I’ve slept on it on more than one occasion.
“Do you even know where linens and things are?” Now, she looks over her shoulder at me. “It’s fine, Hemming,” she adds, shaking her head and turning her attention back to the bed I used in high school. “It’s just a bed. I’ll stay on my side if you stay on your side.”
I should take the couch.
I should give her the bed and the find my king-sized bed frame in the mess, and put it together in the second room in the morning.
That’s what I should do.
But I’m also exhausted from the day.
Yeah.
Exhausted.
I’ll blame that on my quick agreement.
I find lounge clothes for us both in the carry-on suitcase and let Kae get ready to turn in first. While she’s in the bathroom—which does not have a door—I walk back into the living room and look over the boxes. I swear, Tucker put these boxes in here, in this way, on purpose.
The boxes with my clothes and linens are all on the bottom of four-box stacks.
Part of the reason I chose to stay on Douglas property was because it gave Kae and I the opportunity to gradually move into comfort with one another.
The places in town that were available to rent were all one bedroom, one bath rentals. There were neighbors I didn’t know yet.
We’d have to be “on” all the time.
I thought being here, we could relax our guard.
And yet it appears Tucker thinks we’re better off going all in, right away.
I should be upset.
Yes, I agreed to the job. No, the day hasn’t been the worst.
However, Kae and I should be the ones to determine how fast or slow we move forward. There should be space for us to “turn off.”
But I realize I’m not upset.
The few instances where Kae and I acted like a couple at the airport told me this was going to work. We’ll pull this off.
Easily, I think.
“I’m done.”
I look over my shoulder at Kae’s words and see her standing in the doorway of the bedroom, sleep shorts on with an oversized t-shirt. Her hair is still pulled up on the top of her head.
“I just hit a wall,” she tells me around a yawn. When her face relaxes, it’s only to show her eyes appear glassy with sleepiness. “Do you have a side of the bed you prefer?”
“Closest to the door.”
She nods. “Okay.”
I turn away from her to turn off the lights and make sure the front door is locked. The house is small enough that I can hear as Kae pull’s back the covers and slides between the sheets. My body awakens with curiosity.
I’m attracted to my wife.
I twist my wedding band on my finger as I walk back to the carry-on. Finding my charging cord, I plug my phone into an outlet in the kitchen before walking into the bedroom, the house completely dark now aside from one light.
Kae left the bedroom light on and I see her on the left side of the bed, on her side, her back facing the center of the bed. She doesn’t move as I enter the room.
I should bring my things into the guest bath to get into sleep clothes but I just turned everything off.
Her back is to the bathroom, anyway.
There is a separate water closet, but I’m not changing in that claustrophobic room.
The bedroom’s closet is in here, too, but there are boxes all over, making the space not much more usable than the water closet.
I change quickly into a shirt and boxers in the middle of the bathroom, gathering my clothes and dropping them in the same hamper Kae’s clothes are in.
It’s going to be fine, I think, getting into the opposite side of the bed. Kae doesn’t move. Her breath doesn’t hitch.
She may very well already be asleep.
Clearly, she’s unbothered by sharing a bed.
So yeah, I think we’re going to be okay.
“Shoot...”
The whispered word brings me awake but I keep my eyes closed, trying to figure out where the voice is coming from.
Quickly, the previous day comes back and when it does, I realize Kellie—shit, no, Kaelyn—is trying to carefully untangle her limbs from mine.
It would appear that at some point in the early morning hours, we both turned toward one another. My arm is under her neck. Her hand was on my chest. It feels like a hot brand in the spot she removed it from.
Currently she’s slowly moving her leg from between the lock my limbs have her in.
I don’t want to startle her but god, the more she rubs her leg against mine...
My cock twitches beneath the loose cotton of my boxers.
With a sleepy sigh, and a prayer she buys that I’m still out, I roll to my back.
Kae stills completely. It’s probably a solid ten seconds before she takes her leg back and rolls out of bed.
I hear the click of the water closet door before opening my eyes to the sun filled room.
That second bed needs to be put together a-sap.
When the toilet flushes, I sit on the side of the bed and rub sleep from my face.
“Did I wake you up?” Kae’s voice holds a note of uncertainty.
I’m going to let her think I know nothing about the embrace we found ourselves in this morning. “No. You didn’t.”
“Oh. Okay. I’m going to... Uhm. Do you think there’s a toothbrush or anything?”
She has her arms crossed over her stomach and her eyes are slightly widened. How we woke up really threw her, if the visual recurrence of nerves tells me anything. However, instead of wildly searching around, she keeps her eyes trained on mine.
“I’m not sure what Tucker put together. If you can’t find one in there, I know I have a spare in our travel things from yesterday. Still in package,” I clarify.
“I’ll look. I just wasn’t sure...”
“Kae, it’s your bathroom. Feel free to look around. I’m going to take a piss in the other one.” I stand from the bed.
“Are you sure? You can have this bathroom. I’ll... I don’t know what I can do. It’s not like we have a coffee maker out that I can make coffee or anything. Gah, this is awkward.” She tries to smile at her nerves.
“Go ahead and see if Tucker put anything together in this bathroom. I’ll use the other one and if you don’t find anything here, check the carry-on. It would be in the inner side pocket.”
“Thank you, Hemming.”
“No problem, Kaelyn.” I walk across the house to the other bathroom and do my morning business. It is awkward. I’ll give her that. Living with a woman is an intimate experience.
Living with a woman you don’t really know makes it muddy.
Awkward, like she said.
But waking up this morning with her wrapped around me didn’t feel wrong.
“I found some!” I hear Kae yell across the house as I wash my hands.
Of course, there aren’t any towels in here so I shake my hands dry then wipe them on the shirt I slept in.
I glance at the oven clock and see it’s just after seven. I give it till seven-thirty before Tucker comes knocking on the door.
The asshole can help us unpack.
“I left a second toothbrush out for you,” Kae says from behind me. I look back at her. The pony tail she put her hair in before bed was skewed and falling out before, but has since been fixed.
Of course, she still wears her bedroom clothes, and I let my eyes drop. Her breasts are obviously free under the shirt, and I can see the faintest outlines where her nipples pebble. My mind immediately has the image of me pushing her against the wall and pulling her shirt up, exposing those taut peaks.
Are her nipples a pale pink, or are they more of a dusty rose color? How much darker do they get when they tighten...?
I swear, those spots get more pronounced and when I look back at her face, a blush colors her cheeks.
“Sorry,” I apologize. “That was...” I shake my head. “Rude. Sorry. I’m... Why don’t you go ahead and change? Shower. Whatever you have to do. Tucker will probably be by in a little while, and then we’ll get the house livable. Let me find towels and shit.”
I did the majority of my packing but the movers did some of their own too.
I find a box labeled “towels” after minimal searching. It has a box labeled “kitchen” on top of it, and after I remove it and open the towels box, I find bathroom towels under kitchen towels and five rolls of paper towels.
It’s literally the box for all things “towels.”
Kae goes back to the bathroom and while I’m no peeping Tom and she’s absolutely safe with me, I close the bedroom door to give her more privacy. At minimum, that bathroom could have one of those sliding farm doors...
Then again, we won’t be sharing a room again after today.
At the carry-on, I pull out my last change of clothes before zipping the suitcase and propping it against the wall. Not sure how the water heater is, I don’t bother with a shower now. After the work of unpacking and rebuilding furniture, I’ll need a shower later.
Once dressed for the day in old jeans and a plain navy tee, I get to work putting boxes in appropriate rooms. Boxes that contain living room items go in the living room.
Kitchen, in the kitchen.
And so forth.
As expected, there’s a knock on the door twenty minutes later, at seven-thirty on the dot.
“You’re a fucker, you know that?” I say by way of greeting, opening the door to my Marine buddy.
Tucker chuckles as he holds a hand out. We clasp palms as he says, “It’s not intentional.”
“Like fuck, it’s not.”
“You’re laughing about it though, so it can’t be that bad.”
I don’t confirm nor deny as I let him into the house. However, I won’t let him off that easily. “The full bed? Really?”
“I didn’t realize you had two fucking beds!” Tucker chuckles. “I started to put it together and then realized one of the sides was longer than every other piece, but the majority of the frame was the smaller bed, and it was eleven at night. I was fucking tired. Why can’t you be normal and have a headboard or something?”
Tucker helps to put the boxes in rooms, and then starts to cut Saran wrap from furniture. It’s not much longer until Kae exits the bedroom.
“Hey, do you think—” Her voice stops when she realizes we’re not alone. “Oh. Hi.”
I walk over to her side. “Kae, this is Tucker. Tucker... Kaelyn.”
Kae takes a step forward and offers her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Tucker. I... Well, thank you.”
“My pleasure,” Tucker replies, shaking her hand. “I know both Carter and Hemming explained everything to you, and I’m glad you agreed this was the best option for you. I know it’s a bit unorthodox and standard WITSEC wouldn’t be quite this drastic, but we wanted to make sure you remained 100% safe.”
“I told them both that I’m pretty sure no one will care that I’m gone, but I guess I was up for an adventure.” She speaks so freely with Tucker. Her tone lacks the nerves she occasionally has with me.
Maybe Tucker was the better man for the job...
A surge of protectiveness overcomes me at the thought.
“Definitely an adventure,” my friend continues. “Oh, your cat should arrive next week sometime. Carter has it and she’s driving. Making a stop on her way back, though.”
“Thank you. He’s not a great travel partner, so I’ll have to apologize to her.”
“Do you guys want a tour of the property?” Tucker points his thumb over his shoulder. “And then I have a cell phone for you, Kaelyn, up at the house.”
“Sure,” Kae says, at the same time I sweep my finger around the room.
“There’s a lot to be done here, still.”
Tucker waves me off. “See the property. Go get groceries. Boxes can wait.”
Kae moves back to the bedroom to grab her shoes.
“Douglas...”
“You guys have to get out there. You can’t stay holed up on my property. You need to start building your current footprint, her footprint. Speaking of, you gave her access to her social media accounts?”
“She saw them, yes.”
“Okay, good. Whatever you guys can do to make Kaelyn Johansen real, do it.” But when Kae comes back from the bedroom, Tucker’s tone switches. “Great. You like animals, Kae?”
“I do.”
I follow behind my friend and my wife, as he tells her about his donkey.